On the third anniversary of the fake Batla House killings, Jamia Teacher’s Solidarity Association organised a seminar to address the issue of illegal picking up of the youths from the valley. The topic dealt with the atrocities and the injustice that is being done to the masses by the so-called “custodians of the law” i.e. the military and the police personnel.
Before delving into the actual issue of Kashmir, Ms. Sangha Mitra, a member of JTSA, first spoke about the Batla House encounter where the Special Cell of Delhi Police started the crackdown on the innocent students of Jamia Millia Islamia. She said it was the brazen witch hunt carried out by the Police and the prejudiced media that led to the formation of the JTSA. As such allegations were levied and picking up of the college students became a common practice, it was not appropriate for the teachers of the institution to isolate themselves to ivory towers.
Ms. Mitra talked about the various contradictions in the statements of Police, raising questions about the credibility of the encounter, and backed her point by giving the example of Ravinder Tyagi, a key architect of the Batla House ‘encounter’, who has been found guilty of yet another frame-up of innocents as terrorists. She veered the talk to the Malegaon acquittal, where the court has exonerated the innocent men framed by the police and talked about the brutal acts of police in Bhopal and Ujjain, where the innocent Muslims were being picked up and projected as SIMI activists and then paraded before the media as prized terrorists.
Ms. Fareeda Khan, another member of JTSA, introduced both the speakers namely Ms. Parveena Ahangar and Mr. Sanjay Kak and first called Mr. Sanjay Kak to put across the issue of unmarked graves in front of the audience.
Mr. Kak is an independent film maker and has frequented Kashmir since 2003. Kak recalled as to when he was making a film in 2004, in Kashmir, he came across some 200 unmarked graves in the regions of Kupwara and Regipora, which had been there for 10 – 20 years.
It was the earthquake of 2005 that unearthed this mass violation of human rights, taking place in Kashmir long. It was December 2005, when journalist went and came back aghast and horrified, not by the devastation and destruction caused by the earthquake, but by the huge number of unmarked graves in many districts of Kashmir. Soon after that a report was published, stating the number of graves to be 1000, in 18 villages.
In December 2009, International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir (IPTK) released a report entitled “Buried Evidence”. In the report only 3 districts were covered namely Bandipura, Kupwara and Baramulla and in these three districts with a total of 62 sites, it was found that there are total of 2373 graves. Again in April, 2011 the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) started its own survey. They surveyed a total of 38 sites and found that there are a total of 2730 graves. And if we go by the statements made by the caretakers and gravediggers of the graveyard, it was the police who handed out the dead bodies to them for the secret and unknown burial.
Kak recalled that in a TV programme with Barkha Dutt, Omar Abdullah said that the graves are not unidentified; instead they are unmarked, as there is general tradition in these districts to leave the graves unmarked, without any tombstone. However in the same programme, the Police Chief said that these graves belong to the Pakistani terrorists. The tragedy is that in the same show there was a stark difference in the versions of two responsible gentlemen, yet there was nothing that the people or anyone felt absurd or incongruous.
In a report by SHRC, Poonch district alone has 2700 unmarked graves with Rajouri having 1000 and many districts like Doda, Ramban, Anantnag and others are yet to be surveyed. Strikingly all these areas are those where AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) is in place.
Ms. Parveena Ahangar was the next speaker. Parveena is a chairperson of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons. APDP was formed in the year 1994 by Parveena when her own son was picked up by the security forces in the crackdowns, only never to return to her, without even the slightest hint of where he is, or whether alive or dead.
Parveena narrated her story as to how she travelled from village to village in search of his son and his whereabouts, only to be harassed by everyone. From the past 21 years, she has waged a constant struggle to find the sons of the valley, picked up by the security forces, but even after such a long time, nothing concrete has been done to alleviate from Parveena and others like her their seemingly unending predicaments.
Parveena alleged that they have not received any help or even hope of justice from the ministers and everyone is turning a blind eye to the situation and from our endless sufferings. There are endless cases in which police have picked up the only bread-winners from the family, bringing the family on the verge of utter misery, poverty and destitution. “Are laws only for the civilians and not for the security forces?” said Parveena with tears in her eyes. She alleged that almost all from the security forces, be it NSG or Rashtriya Rifles, have picked up their sons in the crackdown and took away them without even informing of what crime they have been picked for. She said that FIRs have been registered in the police stations, yet they are not doing any effort to find them.
The stories that Parveena narrated were so thought provoking and emotional that many from the audiences, which mostly had college students, broke down and wept profusely.
In the “question and answer” session that took place after the speeches, many thought provoking questions came on the surface.
One such question was about the Anna Hazare movement and how the whole nation joined hands in Anna’s support, so why not the same can be done with the issue of Kashmir. Kak replied only in one sentence: “We need to remove the strap of nationalism from our eyes, and only then we would be able to see the clear picture.” The whole auditorium clapped and appreciated the point Kak made.
In the end there was screening of a documentary entitled “Where have you hidden by new crescent moon” by Iffat Fatima. The documentary revolved around a woman named Moghul Mase, whose son Nazir Ahmad, a teacher, was picked up by the Indian Security Forces on September 1, 1990
Let us hope that the voices of the victims will be heard someday, and justice will be done to them.